Those who are visually impaired are required to overcome various obstacles while swimming. For example, when swimming in a lap pool or indoor pool, the swimmer may continuously run into, or be required to use, the wall or lane divider in order to swim straight or from one desired point to another. Moreover, during a swim competition, an individual at either end of the pool may use a “tapper” to signal the swimmer of the upcoming end of the pool. The tapper can be manufactured from a variety of materials, but typically consists of a pole with a rubber or styrofoam tip at the end to “tap” the swimmer's head and/or shoulder region as they approach the pool end.
Upon being tapped, the swimmer is supposed to either stop, or turn around, possibly by performing a flip turn. However, even with such a configuration, if the swimmer is not tapped at the proper time, problems may still arise. For example, if the swimmer is swimming too fast or if the tapper individual is not paying attention, the swimmer may run into the wall. Alternatively, incorrect tapping timing may affect the efficiency of the swim flip, thereby increasing the swimmer's overall race time.
Even further problems arise during open water swims. For example, during triathlons, the visually impaired swimmer is typically physically tied to a non-impaired swimmer in order to be guided along the swim route. This is cumbersome and restrictive on both swimmers for the numerous reasons one can imagine. Moreover, such presents safety hazards, such as if one swimmer were to have health issues during the swim, the other swimmer may be endangered due to being physically connected.
Currently, there are various solutions to help non-visually impaired swimmers perform better, but such solutions are visual aids, such as LED lighting, to be paired with swim goggles for assisting the swimmer to stay on a straight line or on course. Obviously, however, such fails to be a viable solution for those who are visually impaired. Some of these aids include GPS tracking, however such still fails to be a viable solution as GPS will not work in an indoor environment due to the GPS signal being blocked by the building. Moreover, GPS accuracy allowed to civilian devices fails to meet the criteria required by visually impaired swimmers. GPS accuracy for civilian devices may only have an accuracy of 5 or 10 feet, at best, while a visually impaired swimmer requires accuracy of 18-24″ from the pool wall to assure collision prevention, and allow accurate flip turns.
Accordingly, an improved system having a destination device and one or more guidance devices to be worn by the visually impaired swimmer that allows increased accuracy remains highly desirable.